Importance of Spiritual Travels

These writings are my own insights and own point of view. Prompted to share certain beautiful aspects of the journey of life, that be useful in some way atleast to the reader. Hence, if you feel this could help in any way, please read on.

Someone asked me, "Why do you go to certain locations when everything is inside? Why external when everything is inside?"

Me: Are you aware that your inside has the capacity to even generate food and liquid so that it can sustain itself like many evolved beings do?

He: Yes, I know it.

Me: Then why do you then eat and drink from outside?

He: Because I still have to reach that state.

Me: So till then would you stop eating and drinking?

He: Hmmmmm....

Me: What we preach, we must first experience it. How could you preach that everything is inside when you have not really experienced it? Do you do your puja at home or read scriptures or go to temple?

He: Yes.

Me: Why? Isn't it all within you?

He: I had this conviction because I read about it in many books also.

Me: Conviction comes from experience and not reading. Books also tell you that you are God. Are you?

He: I know that I am.

Me: Have you experienced it?

He: No, but I know it.

Me: You do not know it. You understand it through knowledge.

He: You mean books are of no use?

Me: I read a lot of books and have always found it very useful, but they give only guidance and lets you understand about certain things that exist beyond your understanding. Learning the existence of certain truths beyond your perception will motivate you to explore it and experience it. Without mediums to reach you certain information, you could not have known about it just by sitting that way. Without a Guru arriving to you, you wouldn't have learnt and known life's higher purposes. Everything that nature offers you to experience, learn and grow must be accepted and not looked down in any way. If you ask someone directions towards Hyderabad and the person points and shows you the way to Hyderabad, will you move towards Hyderabad or catch hold of his hand that is pointing? Similarly, external books are the tools towards inner wisdom. External places of energy vortexes are openings to your inner self. They are only doorways and not the destination. But if the Oneness in everything is not perceived and is not looked at from a higher level, books and it's meanings can even confuse you.

He: You mean everyone has to then read and visiting places only to achieve God?

Me: As though you have achieved God just by reading and listening and doing puja.  In this case, all the sacred hubs and places around the world would have been isolated, never ever to have been visited by seekers and even great sages. These locations have different higher subtle realities than what is just seen through physical eyes. Paths are millions, but all paths are certain. All ways are guaranteed to reach you there but not all can do everything. If you don't have the interest to read, you can never gain out of it. If you do not have the interest to travel, you will never gain anything out of it. Similarly, if you do not have interest in pursuing God-realization no Master, No Avatar and even God cannot help you in that pursuit.

He: I love sankirtan and my devotion to my Lord and I am sure I will achieve it.

Me: Certainly you will if that is what suits you and you feel very connected to it. But at the same time not everyone may be inclined towards the bhakti marg, so even if it works for you, it may not for others. Same way even a Muslim will achieve Allah and be liberated if his intention on the path is pure and intense.

He: Yeah?

Me: Yeah! All paths have had their own enlightened and liberated souls through their own methods. Creation of God is diverse and thus He has also made diverse ways to suit everyone's needs to go back home. If creation is His, everything in it is His, how can we judge the Creator itself? So stick to what you feel connected to and allow others to stick to what they feel connected to.

He: I was just briefing.....

Me: Yeah, I understand, I was just elaborating.

He: Okay buddy, take care. God bless!

Me: You too brother. Stay blessed!

This provoked me to put down my thoughts as it flowed ~

Everything what we call internal and external is all a part of Shakti. If you ignore one, it is still dual.

It is said everything is nothing but dust or shunya (void). It is also said that everything is infinite. One says zero and other says infinity. Which is correct? Both are right and both are part of the same reality. In meditation, when you withdraw yourself and go on with Neti Neti (not this, not this) you renounce everything that is not true and slowly you end up in nothing or a void or empty space., you become nothing. But also, when you expand yourself and begin to feel you are everything and everything around is a part of you – man, animal, stone, planet, rivers, etc to be you, then you become infinite, you pervade in everything. God is everything. God is nothing. All practices if minutely observed will have these two properties.  Even in Shree Vidhya, both the processes are involved - the Srishti being involved with creation starting from the Bindu and the Sanghar being involved with dissolution from creation back to Bindu or the point of nothingness.

There have been great masters and souls and there still are, who never ever travelled anywhere, did anything external and were always turned inward and they liberated. At the same time, there have been great masters and souls and there still are, who travel to important places, do external practices, but with inwardness in their outward doings and have liberated. It is just a matter of choice and preferences. But doing neither of these and commenting or judging someone else's practices just with knowledge is not going to get anyone anywhere. Going to places may certainly not important but neither is sitting in one place and imagining everything will happen also going to do any good.  In either way, one has to do what has to be done.  But most important in both doings, is doing what one is doing with the right understanding.

If one travels to places hoping to see God or get miracles, I am pretty sure nothing would happen, because the frame of mind is something else. But if one knows the importance of certain places and how they can boost your practices or if one can understand the value of energy vortexes and making good use of it, then it certainly helps. There are so many masters and great sages who have chosen certain external locations to do sadhana and there are so many narrations of the vivid experiences that they have had in those locations shows how it helps. There are also masters who travelled extensively, did sadhana in various places and later set down at one place and later turned totally within. At the same time, there are so many masters (like Ramana Maharishi) who never bugged an inch right from the start and found everything inwardly. It must be remembered that these great souls have had previous lifetimes where lot of things were done by them, until they reached a time where they did not need it anymore. So, even the point of evolution of the soul matters. Everything does not just happen in this life. What you are today is after the being through thousands of births and experiences, rise and downfall, after which you stand today wherever you are today in the point of evolution.

So, stating that something will be achieved only by going to a certain place or meeting people will something be achieved. At the same time the other way also is untrue. One must go with one’s inner feeling and guidance and not by other’s experiences.  I never encourage people to travel but only share everything about people and places and books with the intention that it helps those who need it. Not everything is for everybody. Not every one eats pineapple but those who love pineapple will want to know about it. It would not be right for one who like apple more say that pineapple is not good. What is good for me may not be good for you and vice-versa.

Everyone you meet in life is not a coincidence.  Everyone, including your family and friends have been associated with you in the past and that is why you have connections with them and experiences with them, all part of your past karma with them. Similarly, places also have connections linked to your past experiences. I have strongly seen this that people always keep meeting new people in various ways all the time and there is always something relevant in their lives with that person.  It is not required to know what but just allowing that experience to happen itself is unwinding of your karma.  What you do after meeting them is your entanglement or further karma but if you are witnessing things and passing through those events and people, then what nature has had to do with that person, place or thing, it has been done with.

There are two ways - Pravriti and Nivriti. Pravriti is when you are engaged in action and nivriti is when you retire from action. A karma Yogi is in the state of Praviti and a recluse of a tapasvi is in the state of Nivriti. We all are in both states all the time. In day you are in Pravriti and in night you are in Nivriti. A grihast when in the world is in Pravriti and when meditating is in Nivriti.  Similarly, when in the world you have to be doing action, visiting places, doing puja, reciting hymns, doing seva, doing exercises, etc are all states of Praviti. Similarly, maintaining silence, aloofness, meditativeness, resting, yog nidra, contemplation are all activities of nonaction. How to be in Nivriti while being in Praviti is what Babaji teaches us - the drishta bhaav, you know that you are not the doer but the grace of the Guru and the Divine does everything, even your sadhana, you only remain witnessing everything.

So, while visiting places, if not being just in the state of Pravriti (seeing, touching, worshipping) but also if you can be in the state of Nivriti (withdrawn, detached, witnessing, connected) it would help you, otherwise, it is more of entanglements or just mere time pass. Similarly, even when it comes to reading books or not reading books, it is again dependent on your own stuff and how you relate to it. If you feel inclined read it if not don’t. There are no rules as such.  If you feel and experience benefit out of it great if not, not required.  Everyone reads but who gets what depends on what one is seeking.  Everyone travels but what one gets again depends on what one is seeking.

Let me share an experience of books with you. About four years back I was reading a powerful book written by a certain Saint who is alive today, whose name or book I would not want to mention. He had deliberately wrote the book and charged it with potent energies.  That is what all Masters do as a matter of fact.

So, the book I meditated upon was so powerful that it brought intense states of meditativeness. It was so powerful that the same night I had intense shaktipat from that Saint at 2 a.m. Not just that, within a week, I found myself landing up in the places that he was intensely involved in, of course, the opportunities for going to those locations came something else. That ‘something else’ I realized was only an opportunity to lead me to those places to further give experiences to whatever was required. I was so excited about it that i mentioned about the book to many and nothing really happened. It was then i realized that what is use to one may not be of use to another. All the great books of our ancient sages have potent energies and potent hidden secrets in them. How one decodes them or connects to them depends on one’s state of Chitta. Some great books have been written and decoded in such a way that if one’s consciousness is not pure enough, it will never ever open up, irrespective or whatever the reader does to dig it out.  That is why these books were meditated upon, not read.  (read the previous article "reading secrets") Same way, the physical locations on earth have to be experienced and not visited. It all depends on the inner states of whatever you do, wherever you do, however you do. The bhaav that Babaji emphasizes so much upon. It all shrinks down just to that.

So, there was nothing external to receive from that place or from that Saint, but the internal oneness of Divinity is so profound that you connect through anything, in any form, in any place, you are connecting to that pool of Divinity, and that will present itself to you, in it’s own way, not in your way.  That is why I was mentioning earlier that we don’t do thing, we feel we are doing things, but it certainly is not.  If you can identify with these things in these manners, then whatever external is done, it does not matter.

 Just like to do your sadhana you would first need an external device to go internal. Even though our Advait Shree Vidhya sadhana is nondual, it begins with external. It begins with a Meru and other processes until one gradually starts seeping within.  Of course, after being helped with all the external presents of nature like places, books, masters, idols, rituals, etc, eventually a time has to come where one starts experiencing everything within, otherwise everything can be called nonfutile. A stage where one does not need to go anywhere, read anything, do anything special, but every action and word and deed is done in unison with Divinity. At that stage, from that point of view, one who has realized the truth, says from the core that everything is within. Till then, it is only preaching bookish knowledge.  One must be careful not to wander off from the truths behind the Divine words of wisdom. Just like the story Ishan bhaiya mentions about the man who not knows but understands he is must see God in everything. With that prideful knowledge he moves around everywhere seeing God in everything or rather trying to see God in everything. At one place, he sees people running towards his direction shouting "Elephant! Elephant!" But the man full of knowledge keeps moving ahead while two to three people warn him, but in the proclaimed state he says "God is in everything so why fear?" When he reaches near the elephant, the elephant unable to see God within this man, picks him up and trashes him on the ground and moves on. Dazzled internally and externally, he angrily questions his Master who had asked him to see God in everything to which the Master replies, "Why didn't you see God in the people who warned you against the wild elephant?" 

Siddha Pulipani, Palani

This is what bookish knowledge can do, if it is not linked with experience or true realization of any teachings or Godly words. Moreover, there are such states where in one's vicinity wild animals also become calm. This is Ahimsa Siddhi, where one's each cell reverberates with nonvoilence that he has absolutely no fear of anything. Lord Buddha had developed the Ahimsa Siddhi, in whose presence not only wild animals but even the dreaded Angulimala lost his ferocity. There are many such sages who had lived such. Without being a Buddha, that is practising and realizing that quality of Ahimsa in totality, what else can happen when one talks about seeing God in an elephant?


Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa worshiped the idol so intensely that he even fed the idol and talked to the idol even though He was already a great elevated soul. Eventually, he realized the formless form of the form – Ma Kali, which was possible due to His Guru Totapuri ji, who made him cut the image of Kali in an experience. (read this real story) So the form and the formless are both one aspect.  That is why all paths must be respected. Every path or tradition or cult or Guru or religion is all the diverse form of that Supreme One. Until this is done, there will always be dos and donts in everything you touch or everything you look at and that is enough to prevent you from looking further. Just like even in sadhana, as Babaji says, if you get too stuck in the dos and donts like having bath and other formalities, you will be stuck with that itself and not get to go further. A real Master will never bind you with formalities that the world already is producing and maintaining.  Likewise, even if you travel to the places and are stuck in washing feet, running behind aratis and prasad, worrying about bathing, etc, etc, the real essence of it is gone.

Same way, if one goes anywhere but with the right understanding of what one is doing it should only help and not build up further ignorance. Just reading somewhere that hat everything is inside and thus closing eyes and sitting will never help. It has never helped anyone. For eons of time period all Masters have been telling that God is within. Even if one believes or understands this, how many have experienced it?  By reading you don’t get God, by travelling you don’t get God, by understanding you don’t get God, but by knowing you know God, by experiencing you experience God. To get to that, one must work upon oneself, karmas have to be got ridden off, self-defeating patterns have to be changed and that is where a Guru enters in life to show us certain ways and sadhana to achieve that, to clear of that dust which is creating all these differences.  Guru comes to give experience not preachings. Guru comes to give wisdom not knowledge. In this path of Shaktipat, everything is experience and everyone's experience is totally different. Not two people can have the exact same experience. So, why compare? Why judge?

Spiritual travels are not the same as relaxing or sight-seeing travels. It is totally opposite. That is why there are hardly any people with our travels. So many have written to join us to intimate them so that they can join us in our travels, but it does not work that way. These travels are more over focussed on spiritual connections and involves very least of idle chats or any and every unwanted discussions. They are more intense because of continuous and spontaneous activities. It is nothing like you climb up and down a hill and want to rest for an hour. There are times when we have walked for hours, climbed peaks in the remotest places and only find no proper place to stay or eat and then spend the night on bare floor in cold or heat and then early morning descent down for hours by foot and then get on to a bus and travel again for hours. These are not easy certainly because they are not meant for easy trips of relaxation. It is more exertion rather. At times there are no toilets or bathrooms and at times there are no other options but the dirtiest public toilets. Food choices and delicacies are almost nil. We never choose AC or comfort rooms for nights. Luggage is squeezed to the most minimum of one bag pack, to make it light. Moreover, we don't need so many clothing and shoes and slippers and night dresses and day dresses and make up kits and bathroom kits and soaps and detergents and iron boxes and meditation chairs and tiffin boxes and eatables and games... lol.. With all these definitely God cannot be found but pleasure can be.

So, be it books, be it travel, be it ritual or any external activity…. They are all just certain external gadgets but the main tool is sadhana. With sadhana, all these gadgets can enhance your journey. Without sadhana, all these gadgets become sources of ignorance and /or waste of time.  Moreover, these are all my hobbies and I believe my today’s hobbies are much better than my earlier hobbies – boozing, smoking, watching movies, chilling out with friends, attending marriages, parties and functions, chit-chatting, ‘seeing’ great places, eat-outs, discussions of world reforms, being updated of the latest news, discussing other's life, etc. Being a learner i get more opportunities to learn so many things of the Creator's world. People ask me how do i get so much of time for these activities such as sadhana, travel, reading, writing, and music. I say when you replace 20 hobbies with just 2-3 hobbies at a time, there is time and only time all the time :)

Divine Love and Light..

If you like to read on the divine travels you can at www.divinetravel.info (will be updated soon) where all efforts have been made to describe about the important of the place and it's relevance so that you may receive what you seek.

Importance of Spiritual Travels